Found this Genesis flash cart? on the ATgames website

[Leo_A]

Krikkz has a deal with junfangames, he sells the chips only they are assembled in china and are not supported or guaranteed by krikzz, mine as worked perfectly for over a year, and feedback on aliexpress was good too.

Where did you read this though? I still don't understand why if it's legitimate that it won't take updates, but if there's a forum post from the horses mouth, it must be correct.

It does make sense

It doesn't make any sense why they brick if you try to update them, if they're genuine. Even if they're assembling his components rather than him shipping them finished boards, it doesn't make sense why it will only work with the preinstalled firmware and fails if updated.

In that way the firmware on the old chips could be something he locked due to the contracted deal with that group so they can offer it at a far cheaper price.

It's just firmware. It's not any cheaper because he's using an older version of it or that it's locked to a particular revision. What does he or this Chinese distributor supposedly gain by doing so?

If these are 1:1 and genuine, it should accept updates. Heck, if they fail when updated and are official, I very much doubt he would even allow for an accidental firmware update happening for one of his unsuspecting customers with this batch slated for China. That it not only doesn't accept updates but can actually be bricked by doing so, rather seals the deal on their legitimacy in lieu of a forum post somewhere proving otherwise.

They're cheap copies that aren't 1:1 replicas of the real deal and thus end up ruined when one attempts to update its firmware with an official update. It's the only line of reasoning that makes sense until one of you guys posts something up as evidence to prove me wrong (Which I hope you do if correct; While extremely skeptical, I've been wrong before and if I am here, I'd like to know for sure.).